Hello, once more. Yes, I am finally updating. (sigh) I honestly don't like this chapter, and I didn't like writing it either. It just seems... poorly done, mediocre even. Ah well, it had to be there, so I had to write it. Chapter 21 will be so much better.
And thanks greatly to Punker88, who made me think about and change that one scene in Chapter 19. You're review is the one that triggered better writing from me! EVERYONE ELSE, LOOK BACK TO CHAPTER NINETEEN AND LOOK AT THE SAM AND HERMIONE SCENE. IT IS DIFFERENT.
Disclaimer: I own Martin Cross, Fernand Diose, Gregston Piers, Godrick Hephry, Ann Straughtly, Trillon, and Kit. I don't own Danny, or Harry, or any of the characters associated with them.
Chapter Twenty: Upon Arrival
Harry jogged after the team of wizards as they sped through the halls. Just before the entrance doors, they turned into a room whose walls were lined with brooms ranging from the Nimbus 2000 to several Firebolts. These were meant for serious flight.
Sirius, not having his own broom, took a Nimbus 2001. Harry pulled out his wand and muttered, "Accio Firebolt."
Martin Cross handed Harry a Nimbus 2000. It looked brand new, with barely a twig out of place. "Here, Potter. Take this."
"I've called my own broom, thanks," he replied.
"We don't have time for that Harry," Martin persisted. "Every second we linger, there is more chance of Danny failing."
Fool! the voice barked. "I want my Firebolt," Harry said coldly.
Martin blinked. Had the boy's eyes just flickered red? Or was it a trick of the light?
"Harry, we can't wait on you," Sirius insisted.
"Then go on without me! I can find my own way! Really, how hard is it to find a troop of wizards flying in a muggle's plain sight?" Harry felt anger flickering in his heart. He wasn't a child anymore! Why couldn't anyone believe he could act on his own?
It's not your youth they don't trust. They question your sanity. Sirius told them about your nightmares. Did you realize he even went as far as assigning Ron and Hermione to watch you while he was gone? They think you're a nutcase! Harry narrowed his eyes at Sirius, who looked back at him questioningly.
Ann finally stepped in. "Marty's right! We don't have time for this! Let Harry wait for his broom; while we argue, people's lives are at stake!"
Martin glanced at Harry before nodding and jogging out the door. Sirius stared at Harry a moment longer, who glared back, and followed the group.
---
Walker blasted Danny full in the chest. The halfa was flung backwards and skidded to a halt against the pavement; his back burned from the friction. Before he even had a chance to groan, Bullet grabbed Danny by the front of his jumpsuit and threw him into a nearby building. Bricks crumpled around him and stars speckled his vision. In reflex, he let loose a ghostly wail that would knock out anything around him. It successfully blocked Walker and Bullet, who had both been advancing on Danny.
Danny shook the dizziness away and flew up into the air. He shot at the two ghosts and knocked them on their faces.
"Why didn't I bring my Thermos with me? Idiot!" He glanced quickly at the GAV, where Walker's guards still swarmed. There was a flash of green and several yelled and were sucked into a small green vortex. His mom had the Fenton Bazooka with her. If he could only get to it-
He swooped down into the battle, blasting guards out of his way and freezing others in their tracks. In moments, he had made it to the GAV and landed in front of his mother. Maddie halted her motion and opened her mouth to talk, but before any words could be spoken, two hands shot out of the ground and took Danny by his ankles. They pulled him under and dragged him out of the frenzy.
"Trying to run for help now, punk?" Walker snarled. Danny kicked Walker in the chin and propelled himself away from the ghost. Bullet appeared above him and shot a blast of purple energy in his face. Danny lost all concentration in the pain and plummeted to the ground. Blinking, he looked up and immediately rolled to the side to avoid Bullet's fist. It left a small indentation in the pavement, right where Danny's head had lain a second ago.
He threw a shield up around him as Walker blasted him from the sky, but the weak force field flickered and collapsed.
'They're too strong,' he realized in horror. Bullet ran up and kicked him in the side. Danny groaned in pain as Walker landed beside his comrade. The halfa stood to meet them with one last thought-
'Sam, Tucker, where are you?'
---
Sam led Tucker and Hermione to the OP center. "Hopefully, those hover carts will still be in the same place as last time. Let's see… yes!" She opened a hatch in the floor and heaved out a small green and silver car. "Tucker, help?"
"No, let me." Hermione brought out her wand again and levitated the remaining two from the storage space. Tucker gaped, but Sam just said, "Thanks, now come on!"
"What's the hurry?" asked Tucker.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm just… worried about him… Do you think it was a bad choice to send him out there?"
"Nah. He can handle his parents. I think you just miss him," he joked.
Sam blushed. "No way. He's been gone, what, thirty minutes?"
Hermione was serious. "But we should hurry. Remember, with Dan out there, the streets are no longer safe. He could decide to attack at any moment."
Sam set each car to hover mode and opened one of the large windows of the OP center. "Should we get Ron? Like I said, all the help we can get."
Hermione bit her lip. "If you'll ask him. I'm sure he's still steaming at me."
"I'll get him," Tucker volunteered. "You know, bloke to bloke. Right?" He laughed and left the room.
Sam touched Hermione on the shoulder. "It's going to be fine, Hermione. Remember that."
"It's all so abrupt," she whispered. "I don't know what to do. I don't even know what to say to him, how I feel towards him. He's been my friend for so long, but…"
"I know how you feel."
"Yes?"
"Yeah… you see, I… like someone very close to me, and I'm afraid to go any farther than 'just friends.' I always wonder what would happen between us…"
"You and Danny?"
Tucker ran back into the room. "He won't come out of the bathroom and threatened to make me upchuck slugs if I didn't leave. That, by the way, is why I'm here again." He paused a moment. "Wait a second! If he's not here and Danny's not here… I'm officially surrounded by girls!" He grinned happily.
Sam shook her head in disbelief. "Only you, Tucker…"
They each mounted a hover car and flew them through the window. Just as they left, though, they heard the shattering of glass from below and saw a thin object shoot by underneath them.
"What the heck?" Sam said. "Was that a ghost or something?"
"Didn't look like it," Tucker replied.
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "If I'm not mistaken, I'd say that was Harry's Firebolt. His broom," she added at their confused expressions. "But why would he call it to him? Unless… something's wrong."
"Do you think it's-" Sam gasped.
"It very well could be. Let's go!" The three teenagers flew after the broom as fast as their vehicles would carry them.
---
Harry sat down on a bench in the center of the room, but immediately stood up and paced back and forth. He was restless. Why wouldn't that stupid piece of plywood hurry up?
He paused in his step, and blinked. Did he just think that? But why not? There was no reason he shouldn't be frustrated at a time like this.
But he didn't usually think things like that. He loved his broom, right?
You love an object? My, is that selfish or what?
He bit his lip and continued pacing. He longed to get to the fight, so he could destroy Danny's future self. He would wipe that villain out completely, not contain it like Danny had so naively done. And to do that properly, he needed his own broom. Brooms tended to go haywire in the hands of others beside the owners.
'And while I'm at it, I might as well get rid of the one who started this whole thing.'
That would be the smart thing to do, wouldn't it Harry? Danny did change that moment in time, but Dan remained. He must be destined to turn into Dan, one way or another.
Harry stopped again. 'But Danny isn't evil.'
Yet. What if you can't destroy Dan? What if he just keeps coming back and coming back. He's like an infection; if you don't destroy the bug completely, it regenerates. You take out the source, or don't bother trying to fight it at all.
He tried to think of an argument but was completely blank. After all, he had seen it himself. When Vlad Masters pulled the ghost out of Danny, it was already evil and power-hungry. That was why it overshadowed Masters' ghost half, to gain more power. 'That menace is still lurking inside of Danny. You're right, if I don't get rid of Danny, I won't get rid of Dan. But Danny… we've practically become friends.'
It's for the benefit of mankind. So many lost their lives while Voldemort reigned. The prophecy states that Dan is Voldemort several times over. You can stop the murders before they even begin. Your choice- one life, or thousands?
Harry sighed and took a few more steps. There was a faint thumping at the door down the hall. "It's here. Finally."
---
Walker lunged at Danny. The ghost boy flew up to evade, but not quickly enough; Walker grabbed his feet and slammed him into the pavement. His head banged against the ground again.
Danny's vision went momentarily black, but he felt Walker pick him up again and throw him. Bullet caught him and thrust a knee into his gut, before throwing him back. Walker punched him in the face and threw him back to Bullet. It was like a painful version of catch, and Danny was the ball.
Danny's eyes swam into focus just as Bullet caught him again, and the halfa threw up. On Bullet.
The ghost cried out and dropped Danny. "You disgusting creature! Why, I ought to-" Crackling purple and black energy swirled around his hands, growing until-
"You'll do nothing," sneered a voice. Bullet was blasted away from Danny and several hundred feet down the road. Danny's heart dropped to his gut. 'No. No! He's here!'
"As for you, Walker…" There was suddenly a cry of agony behind Danny, and Walker was tossed after Bullet.
Danny looked up into the sky and saw his future self grinning down at him, before gliding to the fallen ghosts. He threw a bright green orb of energy, the size of a small car, on top of them. Dan took one last look, and moved back to where Danny was.
But Walker's goons had noticed Dan, and abandoned attacking the GAV to swarming on him. They formed a dome around him that suddenly glowed green. The guards disintegrated. Danny shuddered to think of where they went.
Dan, appearing as though he had nothing more than stand up to close a window, landed in front of Danny and bent down on one knee to stare him in the face.
"Hello Danny," he rumbled. His voice, so familiar from all of the nightmares he had, made Danny's skin crawl. It was terrifying to have Dan's face so close to his own; he was painfully reminded of the blood-thirsty eyes and the flesh-hungry fangs. "How have you been the last five months? Wait, let me answer that for you- you've been in paradise, while I've been rotting away in a soup container!" His hair danced upon his head. "What, did you think that you had actually gotten rid of me? That if you got past that one moment in time, that I would just- just fly away? Oh please, only in fairy tales does something like that happen. This isn't a book Danny. Oh no, right now you're entering your own personal Hell!" With that, Dan smacked Danny across the face with one hand, hot with electricity, and he was flung backwards.
Danny landed on his arm with a sickening crack, and yelled in pain. He strained, "How did… you escape…?"
Dan came up to the boy. "Well, I suppose I could thank Walker for one thing. He weakened you enough that you can't even fight back." He chuckled and kicked Danny onto his back, before stepping onto his rib cage.
"How, you ask?" Dan pressed down onto the bones and one snapped. Danny screamed. "Ah, music to my ears… It was simple enough- wait until Clockwork is gone, break out of that stupid prison. It was sturdy, but all things can be broken." He pressed down harder and another bone cracked. "Revenge is sweet. I don't know why I even bothered holding back."
A blast suddenly took Dan off of his younger self, but only by a few steps. Danny blinked away the tears in his eyes, and glanced over to the source. It was the GAV, and protruding from it, dozens of guns.
"Get away from him!" Maddie challenged, and Jack put the GAV into drive. Missiles and beams shot at Dan and a good majority hit him. Danny took the opportunity to slip into the ground. It was hard to maintain intangibility, but he managed to make it to an alley nearby.
He collapsed onto the ground. He couldn't find the strength to get back up.
---
"You!" Dan growled. "How many times do I have to kill you before you get the point?!" He shot at the GAV, but Jack dodged expertly. His years of driving wildly on the road without hitting anyone had finally paid off.
One shot of Dan's finally hit a wheel and the GAV spiraled out of control. Maddie immediately put up the Anti-Ghost Shield and Armor.
Dan laughed at them. "No match for me? Afraid? Good choice! Now, where did my younger, stupider self run off to…"
---
The team of seven wizards soon pulled up on the place Kit had described. It was a mess- craters speckled the street, bricks and broken glass lined the sidewalk, and a glowing substance that Godrick Hephy immediately recognized as ectoplasm pooled in several places. The Fentons' vehicle sat in the center of it all, completely coated in a metal armor and surrounded by a flickering green shield.
The enemy was no where in sight.
"God, it's already happened," Trillon said breathlessly.
"Should- should we go see if they're okay?" Ann whispered. "Perhaps Danny was able to get in the RV before…"
Martin nodded. "Ann, Sirius, make sure whoever's in there is alright. Godrick, look at the residue and tell me exactly what happened here. The rest of you, secure the area and make sure this ghost isn't still lurking nearby." They descended to the ground.
Martin landed in the center of it all, a bit shocked. Honestly, he had never had to deal with something this major since becoming Chief of the Committee. Every choice he made now was critical. They all followed him.
"I've got Fenton!" Fernand yelled, and then screamed in pain.
"Diose?" Martin gasped and all the wizards ran to the alleyway. Fernand lay unconscious on the ground, blood oozing from a wound on his side. Above him floated a ghost, the ghost. It grinned down at him hatefully.
"Thank you, mortal. You just made my job so much easier, and so much more enjoyable." He chuckled and looked up at the remaining wizards. "Oh look, there's more. Now who are you supposed to be, the town tree whackers, here to poke my eyes out with your twigs?" He skeptically eyed their wands with a raised brow.
"Ignore his words, he's only trying to upset you," Martin murmured. "Keep a cool head on your shoulders. Start with easy spells and work up. Find his weaknesses."
Godrick opened his mouth to speak, but Ann stepped forward first and screamed, "You'll pay for that! Victevines!" The earth rumbled beneath them and huge vines, some with bodies the size of trees, shot from the ground and wrapped themselves around Dan.
"You can't do that!" Godrick yelled. "He can just phase through it!" Sure enough, without even appearing alarmed, Dan was outside of the writhing mass.
"So you're magic, now? At least it makes the battle more interesting." He grinned and shot a blast at Ann.
She quickly raised her wand and cried, "Contegio!" A bright silver force field grew around her and successfully blocked the attack.
"Attack together!" Martin ordered. Knowing what that meant, they all said, "Flipendo!" and shot rays of red energy at Dan. He grunted, not expecting to really be hurt. Immediately they cried, "Capioso!" Dan yelled out and fell to the ground.
Dan pushed himself swiftly to his feet. "Really, you're starting to get on my nerves. I won't take you off one by one; I have other business to attend to, like destroying that foolish boy over there. Ahem." He glared at them menacingly and took a deep breath.
"Stop!"
Explaining some things. Victevines is a spell I made up with the help of a latin translator (seeing as how I don't speak latin). It came from "victus vines" which literally means "living vines." Another spell I made up is Contegio. I took it from the latin word "contego" to which the translator says means "shield." And lastly, Capioso comes simply from a word meaning "injure":"capio."
I have a real surprise for you in my next update, something I'm afraid you shall all kill me for... :D
Thanks to: Eleirah, kittylover1890, Shenhua Phantom, MissMeliss4251, Inumaru12, Punker88, Shiva the Sarcastic, PotterPhan21, Sasia93, SquirrelGirl13, Mysterious Prophetess